To cite only the most important operations

Undoubtedly, the month of September will be marked a turning point in the process of crisis of the U.S. high-tech industry. For the first time since almost two years, it has found the path of the acquisitions. In a few weeks, Oracle over Sun Microsystems ($7.4 billion), EMC has done the same with Data Domain(1,8milliard), Dell acquired Perot Systems (3.9 billion), Adobe threw his vest on Omniture (1.8 billion), and the inevitable Cisco acquired the same week Tandberg (3 billion) and Starent (2.9 billion). To cite only the most important operations. Dozens of other firms technology, especially California, have also made their market, such as Intuit bought two of its competitors for 170 million each.

Is there a link between all these operations Are significant of a same trend For observers, the question is already to answer.

After long months tightened the bolts of management by reducing structure costs, American technology firms - for the most vibrant of cash - now launch in a new race to the critical size, expected for several years. "The main criterion is the immediate acquisition of market shares," says an expert in operations of mergers & acquisitions (M & A) of the Silicon Valley.

The feeling of those who have the financial means to their acquisitions is that if they do not launch now, it will later be more expensive or then impossible because a rival them will be advanced.

This race the expansion is actually dictated by yet more complex considerations. The first is market. While the market is already distributed on the rise for several months, companies who want to support their market cannot by external growth, having been at the possible performance of profitability, after several phases of internal restructuring. The more often painful in terms of jobs sacrificed.

Another obsession is to find new, if possible growth relays complementary to existing supply: operations performed by Oracle, EMC or Dell does not explain otherwise. For these providers of technology, it's to show to their clients that they have now a global firm ("one stop shopping"). H - P had not acquired, last year, EDS for reasons other than it.

Cisco pushes the logic a little more far in seeking, for several years, diversification more broadly, not only towards large computer servers (such as Oracle with the acquisition of Sun) but to the electronics or the video conferencing (Tandberg) also, and the mobile Internet with Starent. It is in this last area to respond to the boom of intelligent terminals type iPhone or BlackBerry.

This movement not being in its infancy, the speculations are well underway to establish a (long) list of the next prey in this new movement of consolidation: Brocade - which declared itself "for sale" - but also Palm, Salesforce or McAfee, so many pioneers who have not reached a sufficiently critical size in their respective fields, are on this list. Among others. Because a second movement of repurchases should appear after it, motivated by the acquisition of new technologies to increase overall competitiveness. Cisco has once more led the way with Starent and Google recently indicated that it would be part of this movement. Eric Schmidt, the pattern of the search engine, even stated that he intended to buy back at least "one firm per month". A buying spree more consistent valuations are currently very low.

Finally, a last consideration will contribute to stimulating the appetite of these American giants, if full pockets: the essence of their financial reserves was generated outside of American soil and they cannot repatriate the cash without paying heavy taxes to the U.S. tax authorities. They will therefore be all the more tempted to shopping outside the United States that technology firms are often still cheaper than in the land of Uncle Sam. They also have the advantage of often find in markets with strong growth potential.